Mexican bishops demand changes in campaign promoting homosexuality

Mexico City, Mexico, Mar 4, 2005 / 12:00 am (CNA).- During a press conference the Bishops Conference of Mexico issued a request that the Secretariat of Health modify a campaign against homophobia because by centering it on a “false anthropological basis,” it ends up promoting homosexuality.
The president of the Bishop’s Committee on the Family, Bishop Rodrigo Aguilar, said that while tolerance of homosexual persons should be fostered, the ads produced by the campaign make homosexuality appear natural and present it “as a legitimate personal choice.”

Bishop Aguilar said the anthropological basis of the campaign is “false and deceptive,” because it twists “concepts and language,” although its authors say it is based on pluralism, tolerance and non-discrimination.

The bishop noted that the Church affirms that “homosexual persons have all of the dignity that corresponds to them has human persons,” and that therefore they should be respected and not discriminated against.

He added, however, that the homosexual inclination is in itself disordered, but that “it is not a sin” if there is no intention of nourishing it “through homosexual acts,” which are indeed “intrinsically disordered.”

Regarding homosexual unions, Bishop Aguilar explained that “ontologically it is impossible to treat unequal things as equals. Marriage based on the heterosexual relationship between man and woman is one thing; unions between persons of the same sex are something very different.

He noted that “only sexual diversity” allows for “natural sexual and emotional complementarity and the possible gift of new life.” Same-sex unions lack these aspects, he said, since they “are intrinsically sterile,” despite efforts to mimic “natural physiological and psychological acts” in order to achieve “an apparent unitive aspect of sexuality.”

Bishop Aguilar said it is important to avoid homophobia, but it should not be forgotten that homosexuality is against the natural law.